BC Book and Magazine Week 2009 (April 18-25)

Vancouver, BC – The West Coast Book Prize Society is proud to recognize Terry Glavin as the recipient of the sixth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

British Columbia’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Steven Point, will present the award at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala to be held at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver on April 25, 2009.

The event will be hosted by BC BookWorld publisher and author Alan Twigg.

“Terry Glavin, author and journalist, has been an outspoken voice in British Columbia as a conservationist and nature writer. He is known for his passionate commitment to British Columbia’s First Nations and for his deep understanding of how First Nation culture and way of life are bound up with the province’s natural history and our future as a just and sustainable society.

In addition to his books, Glavin’s many articles on social and political issues are evidence of his strong journalistic ability to marshal facts and his unwillingness to go with the accepted wisdom of either the right or the left. In his role as an iconoclast, he is a critical voice in the dialogue that sustains a civil society.

As editor, Glavin has also brought us the innovative and courageous Transmontanus series, published by New Star Books. Established in 1992 with the aim of exploring the relationships between landscape and imagination, this innovative series of 16 titles has given voice to authors and themes that might otherwise have been lost to us.

Glavin offers an extraordinarily holistic vision that does not focus on single issues, but instead in everything he writes shows us a world where culture and nature, human aspiration, natural beauty, language, history and social justice are inextricably intertwined.

Terry Glavin has won many awards for his work as a journalist, as a science and technology writer, for his editorial innovation and for his powerful essays. We are privileged to honour him with the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2009, for his contribution to life and letters in British Columbia and for his willingness to show us how to see our world more deeply, more fully and more truthfully.”

– Jury member Ellen Godfrey

The jury for this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award: Ellen Godfrey, author and former literary publisher; David Hill, Manager of Munro’s Books, Victoria; and Sheryl MacKay, host of CBC’s North by Northwest.

This prize was established in 2003 by former Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, to recognize British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province. The recipient receives a cash award of $5,000 and a commemorative certificate.

All BC Book Prizes info at www.bcbookprizes.ca

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Media Contact: Karen Green, Rebus Creative: 604.687.2405, ext. 24, karen@rebuscreative.com

MAGAZINE CABARET: VANCOUVER
Tuesday, April 21 · 7 PM · FREE
The Railway Club (Backroom), 579 Dunsmuir Street

The BC Association of Magazine Publishers and subTerrain magazine presents a literary cabaret featuring Timothy Taylor, Paul Carlucci, Emily Kendy, penny k-kilthau, Alex Leslie and Diane Tucker, who will read from their work recently published in BC magazines. Hosted by CBC Radio One’s Mark Forsythe. Cash bar.

April 23-29, CACGV Gallery, G6 1001 Douglas St. (Sussex courtyard), 250.381.2787, info@cacgv.ca, www.cacgv.ca

Collage and Poetry: Earth, Fire, Sky, Water

Poets and artists call/respond to each other, integrating words and pictures and involving the greater community.

Opening event: Thursday, April 23, 7-9pm

Child and celebrity readings.

Chris Trygg & The Light Sweet Crude Band, playing music based on poetry.

Dance by Lynda Raino

Ballet Victoria dance video set to Leonard Cohen songs.

The festival will be dedicated to the memory of Al Purdy.

It was a balmy Saturday inside the atrium at the Public Library on Saturday; thanks to everyone who came by! We gave away free magazines and lot’s of prizes. There was an art demonstration from Crow Toes Quarterly, readings, a publisher’s panel and more writers, publishers and editors than you could shake a stick at. It was a blast chatting with everyone who stopped by the BCAMP and ABPBC tables. I hope to see you all at the Magazine Cabaret at the Railway Club on Tuesday!!

Hosted by Victoria’s Poet Laureate, Linda Rogers

Ekstasies celebrates literacy with readings from both new and experienced writers. Linda Rogers will introduce three new readers from Literacy Victoria during the first half of this extraordinary annual fund-raising event. Rogers will then be joined by four other writers: Tim Lilburn, Anne Swannell, Yvonne Blomer and Elizabeth Rhett Woods.

Community Arts Council
Friday, April 24 @ 7:00 PM
G6 1001 Douglas St.
Victoria, B.C.
suggested donation to Literacy Victoria: $5.00

For further information: call Richard Olafson or Carol Sokoloff at (250) 385-3378, or reply to this e-mail.

Canadian People’s Poet for the year 2000, Linda Rogers is currently the Poet Laureate for Victoria. Her latest novel is The Third Day Book, second in The Empress Trilogy.

Anne Swannell is a writer and artist living in Victoria. Poems from Shifting were featured as part of art/poetry performance at the inaugural Pacific Festival of the Book in 2007.

Tim Lilburn won Governor General’s Award for Literature in 2003 for his book Kill-site. His most recent book of poetry is Orphic Politics. He currently teaches in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria.

The poems in a broken mirror, fallen leaf spring from Yvonne Blomer’s experiences when living for two years on the Japanese island of Kyushu. She currently resides in Victoria, BC.

Elizabeth Rhett Woods is a poet, novelist and author living in Victoria, BC. She reads from her latest book, 1970: a novel poem, from Ekstasis Editions.

Dvora Levin is a poet in Victoria. She has recently published two books, To Bite the Blue Apple and Sharav.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts.

We had an overwhelming response to our free one-on-one editorial consultations, which will be held in Vancouver at at the WordsConnect Book & Magazine Festival this Saturday, and unfortunately, we cannot accept any more appointments–our editors, from the BC Branch of the Editors’ Association of Canada, are all booked up.

If you weren’t able to score a consultation, bring your burning questions to the How to Get Published panel from 3:00-4:30 in the Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms on the Lower Level of the Central Library.  Join Kevin Williams, president of Talonbooks, Meghan Spong, children’s book publisher at Benjamin Brown Books, Rolf Maurer, publisher of New Star books, Anicka Quin, managing editor of Western Living magazine, and Ian Cockfield, managing editor of EVENT magazine, for insider tips for all writers. This Q&A session is moderated by John Burns, executive editor of Vancouver magazine.

• This week’s Georgia Straight checks in on how BC’s publishing industry is faring in the current economic climate, and finds it’s not all doom and gloom: “BC Book & Magazine Week celebrates new lines for tough times.”

• BCBMW fun fact: Writer, filmmaker and performance artist Amber Dawn, who edited the queer women’s horror-erotica anthology Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire (launching April 18, 8 p.m., at Rhizome Café) and will be leading one of the Main Street Literary Tours, was the co-coordinator of last year’s BC Book & Magazine Week (and did a fantastic job of it, I might add). We’re excited to to have her join us on the flip side of the festivities this year.

• One of the things that’s really cool about BCBMW is the plurality of newer and established voices you’ll hear at the event: Timothy Taylor, Yasuko Thanh, Rita Wong, George McWhirter, Judy Norbury, Jeremy Stewart, P.K. Page, Ryan May, M.A.C. Farrant and Adam Lewis Schroeder, to name just a few. (Check out the Events page for the full rundown.)

• And did you know the North Shore Writers Festival is also happening April 18-25? The more, the merrier, I say– it looks like a fantastic lineup.

Have a piece you’d eventually like to get published–be it a romance novel or a travel article–languishing somewhere on your computer because you’re not quite sure it’s “ready” yet? Or just looking for some impartial, constructive feedback on a story pitch?

Sign up for a free ten-minute editorial consultation with a professional editor from the Editors’ Association of Canada-BC Branch. Consultations take place on Saturday, April 18, between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. during the WordsConnect Book & Magazine Fair at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch (350 W Georgia St).

Submit a double-spaced, two- to three-page pitch or writing sample from the middle of the document to info[at]bcbookandmagazineweek[dot]com, and we’ll email you to confirm your appointment time.

Spots are still available, but please note that the last day we can accept submissions is Monday, April 13, in order to allow the editors time to review your work and provide thoughtful feedback.

And don’t forget to stay for the “How to Get Published” panel from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m., where you can pick the brains of some of BC’s esteemed publishing professionals, including Kevin Williams (president of Talonbooks), Meghan Spong (children’s book publisher at Benjamin Brown Books), Rolf Maurer (publisher of New Star books), Anicka Quin (managing editor of Western Living magazine) and Ian Cockfield (managing editor of EVENT magazine). It’s moderated by John Burns, executive editor of Vancouver magazine.

Looks like the BCBMW posters you may have seen around town have an incorrect date on the front side: the Victoria Magazine Cabaret is on Monday, April 20 at 7 pm, not April 21. My Victoria contact tells me she was able to correct most of the posters she’s put up, and all our other promo (including the back of the poster) has the correct information, so hopefully no one shows up on the wrong day. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please join us for the launch of this powerful new memoir: I Have My Mother’s Eyes, by Barbara Ruth Bluman. The evening will feature a reading a talk by Barbara’s daughter Danielle. It’s in the Alice MacKay Room at the Vancouver Public Library’s downtown branch at 7:30pm on Monday April 13. Books will be available for purchase at a discounted price. Admission is free.